Tour packages are pretty reasonable, ranging from $8 for tour & souvenir (glass or bottle opener) to $15 for tour + 6 pack or $26 for tour + 12 pack.
Most importantly, this includes about 3-4 samples consisting of about a half beer each!
Towards the end, you even get to pull the "steamwhistle" seen here as part of their fancy bottle washing machine.
Tours run on the half or full hour every day of the week. Here's our happy tour group at the end.
Some fun facts that I learned:
- For those interested in "Shot-gunning" the can - aim for the Canadian flag. Apparently, the boring government types would not let them put a target on there
- Look at the bottom of the bottle for 3FG- this stands for "three fired guys" when Sleemans bought out the Steamwhistle founders previous place of employment, Uppper Canada Brewery.
- Steamwhistle picked up the roundhouse for the low low price of $1
- The Convention Center has been trying for years to buy the round-house to tear down and turn into a parkade, but the city has resisted. The convention center still got their 10 floor underground parkade, but to do it they had to tear down the round-house & rebuild it exactly the same with the same materials.
- There are only 4 ingredients in the Steam - barley, hops, yeast & water. No preservatives, so drink up!
- First brew rolled off the line in 2000.
- The Steam is the only micro-brewery in Ontario to have a certified brewmaster. The only places to get the certification is Europe & Chicago apparently.
1 comment:
Hi there. I'm from Steam Whistle Brewing. I'm glad you enjoyed our tour. I just wanted to clarify some of the fun facts you mentioned:
- The John St. Roundhouse is a national historic site and was sold for the price of $1 from CP Rail to the City of Toronto. Steam Whistle is simply a 30-year tenant but not an owner.
- The Convention Centre was interested in having their parking below the Roundhouse but I understand they were supporters of preserving this amazing building. They dismantled part of the roundhouse to build their garage and convention space below and facilitated it being re-built back to exact specifications
- Our Brewmaster, Marek Mikunda, completed a Master Brewers Study in Prague, Czech Republic. Many European countries offer full degree programs (years of study at universities or equivalent institutions) where as most Canadian brewers would have taken certificate programs (months or weeks of study).
I hope that provides clarity. We invite any of your readers for a tour. We offer them every half hour 7 days a week. Cheers!
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